AI data centers have become a problem for both parties, and now MAGA and progressives are on the same side

President Donald Trump wants America to build more AI data centers. Per NBC, A growing number of voters, including Republicans in heavily Trump-friendly areas, would apparently prefer those data centers to be built somewhere else.

An NBC News Decision Desk poll conducted with SurveyMonkey found that 69% of respondents oppose building an AI data center in their local area, including 45% who strongly oppose the idea. The opposition crosses party lines, with 57% of Republicans, 71% of independents and 81% of Democrats saying they do not want one built nearby.

That puts Trump in an increasingly awkward position heading into the midterm elections. He has repeatedly promoted data centers as engines of jobs, tax revenue and economic growth, while voters in the communities expected to host them are increasingly worried about electricity costs, water consumption and how much say they get over the projects.

The data center fight has become a bipartisan issue

Dawn Vogel, a Republican county supervisor in Buchanan County, Iowa, told NBC News that she does not view the issue as Republican or Democratic. Her concern is what she considers the best use of local land and natural resources, particularly water. That puts a Trump-supporting local official in surprisingly close agreement with two of the Democratic Party’s most prominent progressives.

And voters do not appear to be objecting to AI simply because it is AI. The complaints are considerably more mundane. Residents pointed to electricity bills, water supplies, land use and the feeling that massive projects are being approved with too little local input. Data centers can bring jobs and tax revenue, but they also require enormous amounts of electricity.

The opposition to data centers is also becoming a recurring part of the political conversation around Trump. Earlier this year, Trump called communities that oppose data centers “backwards and poor”, arguing that areas welcoming the facilities could benefit from lower taxes and more jobs.

For Trump, the problem is that his argument is increasingly running into the people he needs to convince. Rep. Thomas Massie pushed back against Trump’s warning against opposing data centers. AI may be the future, but voters are being asked to deal with the very immediate questions of who pays for the electricity, who controls the land and what happens to local water supplies.